Search for celebrities on Ancestry.com!November 6, 2001
John N. Rosekrans, a San Francisco arts patron and heir to the Spreckels sugar fortune who co-founded a company that produced Frisbees, Power Wheels, Morey Boogie Boards and other famous toy and sports brands, has died. He was 73.
November 5, 2001
Debra Sweeney, a hospice worker and longtime volunteer for Bennett Valley schools, died from a brain tumor Thursday at home. She was 45.
November 4, 2001
Paul Mullane, a Navy pilot who was chased by Soviet MiG jets during the Cold War and later flew into hurricanes on research missions, died at home in Santa Rosa on Wednesday after battling kidney and heart disorders for several years.
November 3, 2001
Patricia Locke, an American Indian of Hunkpapa Lakota and White Earth Chippewa heritage and former MacArthur Fellow who worked to preserve indigenous languages and helped 17 American Indian tribes start colleges, has died. She was 73.
November 2, 2001
He was there during Marilyn Monroe's brief marriage to Joe DiMaggio in 1954, and when Monroe died in 1962, he helped DiMaggio make the funeral arrangements.
November 1, 2001
Theda L. Olson, a retired nursing assistant, died Saturday in Santa Rosa. She was 82.
October 21, 2001
Rosemarie Finch
Rosemarie Finch, a fixture at McKinley Elementary School in Petaluma for 25 years, died Wednesday after entering Petaluma Hospital with pneumonia.
Finch, who suffered from chronic pulmonary disease, was 65.
Born in South Dakota and raised in Napa, she met her husband, Al Finch, when he was stationed at a Navy installation on Skaggs Island. They marriage in 1957 and settled in Petaluma four years later.
The Finches had two sons and three daughters, and her love of children drew her to McKinley Elementary, where she volunteered as a teacher's aide.
After a couple of years, she was hired by the school. She worked in kindergarten through sixth-grade classes until she retired in 1997.
Finch was kind-hearted but no softie. She was proud of her nickname, "Mrs. Bench," earned for sending students to the bench for misbehaving during recess.
Outside school, Finch served as a Cub Scout den mother and Camp Fire leader.
"She never lost that enthusiasm with kids," her husband said.
Finch, an avid quilter, was also a member of a sewing club comprised mostly of co-workers from McKinley Elementary. She was particularly fond of "quillos," a combination lap quilt and decorative throw pillow, but also stitched traditional designs, including her grandchildren's baby blankets.
In addition to her husband, Finch is survived by two sons, Jon Finch of Petaluma and Allan Finch of Florida; three daughters, Michelle Wagner and Jacqueline Reedy of Petaluma and Alicia Weinert of Washington; a sister, Maxine Bardessono of Yountville; a brother, Cecil Roberts of Nevada; and nine grandchildren.
A memorial service will be at 6 p.m. Monday at Parent-Sorensen Mortuary & Crematory at Magnolia Avenue and Keokuk Street in Petaluma.
Otis Young, pioneer black TV actor
LOS ANGELES -- Otis Young, who became the first black actor to co-star on a television Western series during a time of racial unrest, has died. He was 69.
Young died of a stroke in Los Angeles on Oct. 12, the Los Angeles Times reported. A memorial service was to be held Saturday at the chapel at Pepperdine University.
Young was a cast member of "The Outcast" with Don Murray in the late 1960s before becoming a minister.
His best-known film role was as a career sailor transporting a prisoner to the brig with Jack Nicholson in the 1973 movie, "The Last Detail."
The Rhode Island-born Young was an unknown actor when he auditioned with several better-known performers for the part in "The Outcast."
"He just stood out among all the rest because he was the one actor who was totally unapologetic about this hostility" between the two characters, Murray said.
The hourlong Western ran for one season on ABC. It featured Murray as a former Confederate officer and slave owner who lost his estate during the Civil War and teamed up with Young's character, a former slave turned bounty hunter.
Throughout the season Young made clear his discomfort with the show's portrayal of his character. In an interview with Sh-Boom magazine, Young said he was asked to play "a real tough black cowboy, but they also wanted me to say things that a black man wouldn't say."
During a scene being shot in front of a group of 60 black children visiting the set from Watts, Young refused to say a line that included a racist reference to black people.
"Here was these kids watching this black cowboy in action, and I didn't feel that line was valid for the character, so I refused to say it," Young told the magazine.
Young continued to act occasionally in the 1980s, including a role in the 1981 miniseries "Palmerstown USA." But he eventually decided to stop pursuing his career in acting, said his daughter Saudia Young.
"His focus became more spiritual," she said.
Young is survived by his wife, Barbara, and children El Mahdi, Jemal Lucien, Lovelady and Saudia.
Jose Vargas, 70, Mexico's 'Bozo'
MEXICO CITY -- In full makeup, red hair and his usual smile, Jose Manuel Vargas Martinez, also known as Mexico's beloved Bozo the clown, was buried Saturday. He died at the age of 70.
Vargas died Friday of respiratory problems, Reforma newspaper reported.
"For me, to be a child is a part of my life, because children fill my life," he told Mexico's state-run news agency, Notimex, before he died.
The famous clown began his career as an actor, and had considered becoming a tango singer or a bullfighter before finding his calling as Bozo. Still, he told Notimex, he had no regrets.
"If I had to be born again, I would like to be the same person," he said.
Vargas was working as an actor at a cabaret in 1961 when a friend asked if he could play a clown. He eventually became Bozo, starring in television programs and entertaining several generations of kids.
Bozo was also a famous trademark in the United States, with more than 180 locally produced shows. Facing a lawsuit, Vargas changed the name of his show to Nino the clown.
Friends, family and fellow clowns -- dressed in their usual oversized shoes and brightly colored wigs -- showered Vargas with 20 minutes of nonstop applause and watched as fireworks and confetti rained down on the clown's coffin Saturday.
He was buried at El Panteon Cipreses Cemetery in the rolling hills outside Mexico City.
Bernard Fox, 83, cancer risk expert
Dr. Bernard H. Fox, a federal researcher who became a pioneer in investigating the effect of psychological problems on cancer risk, died Oct. 9 at a hospital in Everett, Mass. He was 83 and lived in the nearby town of Malden.
The cause was pulmonary fibrosis, his family said.
In 1978, Fox published what experts called a groundbreaking paper in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine. That work reviewed earlier studies and drew on evidence in statistics, immunology, virology and additional fields to consider whether stress, depression and other psychological factors contributed to cancer.
It determined that psychological problems might add to cancer risk, although Fox also pointed out that other factors, such as health habits, were more important.
The study of psychological factors in cancer risk was "kind of like astrology before he approached it as a real science," said Dr. Alan B. Zonderman, a senior investigator at the National Institute on Aging.
October 21, 2001
Sadako Fujita
Sadako Fujita, a resident of Petaluma for the past 60 years, died Monday. She was 86.
A native of Mountain View, Fujita came to Sonoma County as a young bride and worked with her husband in the egg business. The family owned Central Egg Company for many years. She retired in 1985.
A longtime member of the Enmanji Buddhist Temple and the Japanese-American Citizens League of Sonoma County, Fujita enjoyed simple pleasures such as gardening, cooking, knitting and, most of all, her family.
"She was a very special person who loved her family," said daughter Judy Yoshioka.
She is survived by her son Robert of Tucson, Ariz., and daughter Judy of Petaluma; three grandchildren; sisters Eiko Baba and Hisako Tsujihara, both of Petaluma, Kiyo Ito of Los Angeles and Tomi Hamaguchi of Atwater; brothers Kazuo Tsujihara of El Dorado Hills, Shiz Tsujihara, Mits Tsujihara and Jim Tsujihara, all of Petaluma; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Services will be at 1 p.m. on Oct. 27 at the Parent-Sorensen Mortuary in Petaluma.
Memorial contributions can be made to the Enmanji Buddhist Temple, 1200 Gravenstein Highway South, Sebastopol 95472.
Leonard LaRue, hero to 14,000
NEWTON, N.J. -- Brother Marinus Leonard LaRue, who as a merchant marine captain in the Korean War evacuated 14,000 refugees from a besieged North Korean port, died on Oct. 14 at St. Paul's Abbey.
Marinus, who became a Benedictine monk after two decades at sea, was 87.
Three days before Christmas 1950, LaRue came upon what he likened to "a scene of Dante's Inferno" at the port of Hungnam. On Christmas Day, he delivered all 14,000 refugees to safety on a South Korean island some 500 miles away aboard the 455-foot Meredith Victory freighter. The U.S. Maritime Administration called his feat "the greatest rescue by a single ship in the annals of the sea."
Not one refugee died in the evacuation; the number of Koreans aboard had, in fact, increased by five babies.
LaRue looked back on the rescue as a turning point in his life. As he put it: "I think often of that voyage. I think of how such a small vessel was able to hold so many persons and surmount endless perils without harm to a soul. The clear, unmistakable message comes to me that on that Christmastide, in the bleak and bitter waters off the shores of Korea, God's own hand was at the helm of my ship."
J.B. Slowinski, expert on venomous snakes
Dr. Joseph B. Slowinski, an expert on venomous snakes who was in the middle of an ambitious inventory of the reptile and amphibian populations of Myanmar, died on Sept. 12 in the northern reaches of that country. He was 38.
Slowinski, who recalled hunting for snakes at age 4 in Kansas City, Mo., had survived previous bites from a rattlesnake, copperheads and a cobra.
But in the high jungle of Myanmar's, he was unable to reach the help he needed when he was bitten by a krait, a relative of the cobra. He died about 30 hours later.
Slowinski was an associate curator of herpetology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
October 19, 2001
Etta Jones, 72
Etta Jones, 72, a jazz singer whose sinuous, after-midnight style could be heard on about 25 albums and at countless club dates, and who was best known for her 1960 recording of "Don't Go to Strangers," died of complications from cancer Tuesday at her home in Mount Vernon, N.Y.
"Don't Go to Strangers" earned more than $1 million for the Prestige label. Since then, Jones became a respected interpreter of standards like "Stormy Weather," "Say It Isn't So," "Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You" and "But Not For Me."
Fond of improvising, she told the audience during a 1998 Kennedy Center concert with pianist Billy Taylor and his trio: "I never sing (a song) the same way again. I can't even sing along to my own records."
Jones received Grammy Award nominations for "Save Your Love For Me" (Muse, 1981) and "My Buddy: The Songs of Buddy Johnson" (HighNote Records, 1998).
She died on the day her most recent album was released, "Etta Jones Sings Lady Day" (HighNote), a tribute to Billie Holiday.
Of all those with whom she performed, including saxophonist Illinois Jacquet at Carnegie Hall, her most recognizable partner was tenor saxophonist Houston Person.
They were first booked together in 1968 at Jimmy McPhail's Gold Room in Washington, and until their final date together three weeks ago, their interaction was often likened to the fruitful pairing of Holiday and saxophonist Lester Young in the 1930s.
A St. Louis reviewer called their collaboration "one of those rare musical matches in which each artist complements the other -- without any battles for the spotlight."
October 17, 2001
Ray Cloud
Longtime Sonoma County resident Ray Cloud, who learned to use a welder's torch in World War II and after the war launched a 38-year career in the welding trade, died Friday. He was 83.
Cloud was born in Rocky Comfort, Mo., and migrated west at age 19, following the death of his mother. He went into the Army Air Corps and became a welder.
In 1946, he and his late wife, Hazel M. Cloud, built a home in Santa Rosa. They lived there 30 years while Ray Cloud worked for several firms as a welder.
He retired from Steve Zappetini & Son Welding and Ironworks in San Rafael. Though he did all kinds of welding, a daughter, Shirley Urton, recalled that he worked often on garbage-truck bodies and pipelines.
In his free time, Cloud relished deep-sea fishing, most often out of Bodega Bay. "He'd go out on the Sea Angler," his daughter recalled.
She said that right up to the end her dad was full of cheer, grateful for life and fond of people.
"He never met a stranger," Urton said. "He always had a smile. No matter what, he always had a smile."
In 1976, the Clouds moved from their Santa Rosa home to a mobile home in Petaluma. Hazel Cloud died in 1989.
Failing health forced Ray Cloud to move into a care home in Petaluma five months ago. A week before his death his daughters moved him to a convalescent hospital in Healdsburg, where he died.
In addition to Urton, he is survived by daughter Carol Brown of Healdsburg; two grandchildren; and a great-grandson.
A chapel service is at 1 p.m. today at Eggen & Lance Mortuary. Interment will be at Santa Rosa Memorial Park.
Cloud's daughters suggest memorial contributions to Guide Dogs for the Blind, P.O. Box 1200, San Rafael 94915.
Elizabeth Hunter
Elizabeth Lucile Hunter, a retired cook with the Ukiah Unified School District, died Oct. 8 of a stroke. She was 93.
Hunter, who was born in Nebraska, had lived in Mendocino County for 66 years. She loved gardening and children, said June Jacobs of Ukiah, Hunter's eldest child.
"She was a very vibrant lady," Jacobs said. "She was ready to try anything."
Hunter grew up in Nebraska with seven brothers. She met and marriage her husband, Arthur, in Nebraska. The couple moved to California in 1935, first to Potter Valley and later Ukiah. The couple raised two daughters and three sons.
Besides being a homemaker, Hunter also worked as a telephone operator for Pacific Bell in the 1940s. Later she became an elementary school cook for Ukiah Unified. She retired in the 1970s, Jacobs said.
Hunter was a member of the Ukiah Methodist Church and later the Presbyterian Church in Ukiah. She also belonged to the Ukiah Senior Center and the Liberty Rebekah Lodge.
Jacobs said her mother loved family gatherings. Hunter was surrounded by family and friends during her 93rd birthday celebration Sept. 22.
Hunter was preceded in death by her husband and two of her sons.
In addition to Jacobs, she is survived by a brother, Emil Meyer of Paradise; another daughter, April Allen of McKinleyville; a son, William Hunter of Ukiah; 16 grandchildren; 20 great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren.
Hunter was buried at the Russian River Cemetery in Ukiah.
Margaret Aitcheson, Tipper Gore's mom
Margaret Ann Aitcheson, the mother of Tipper Gore, is dead at 77.
Aitcheson, who had been ailing, died Monday at her residence at an Alexandria, Va., retirement community, said Kiki McLean, a spokeswoman for the Gores. Aitcheson's son-in-law, former Vice President Al Gore, was with her at the time.
Tipper Gore was in Miami to accept a humanitarian award for her work on behalf of the mentally ill. The award was sponsored by the University of Miami's psychiatry department, the Jackson Memorial Hospital, the Florida Psychiatric Society and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
Tipper Gore often cited her mother's severe bouts of depression -- as well as her own struggle with the disease -- as one of her motivations for taking up the cause. Informed by her husband of her mother's death just before her appearance, Gore accepted the award in her mother's honor and returned to Washington.
Born in Battle Creek, Mich., Aitcheson moved to the northern Virginia area as a teen and spent the rest of her life there.
She is responsible for the nickname of her only child, Mary Elizabeth Aitcheson, who became known as "Tipper" after a Spanish lullaby.
She was a self-employed accountant, a Red Cross volunteer and, at one point, an alcoholism therapist, McLean said.
Aitcheson is survived by her daughter; two nieces, Page Bernow and Gail Romansky; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.She was divorced from Tipper Gore's father, John K. Aitcheson Jr.
